


Comfort Level

by AlabasterMoonbeam



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Body Image, Early Relationship, F/M, Fluff, I flipping love Jaal, I wish more games allowed for plus size characters, Plus Size Sara Ryder, Pre-Relationship, body issues, plus size
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 18:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10724388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlabasterMoonbeam/pseuds/AlabasterMoonbeam
Summary: Sara Ryder has some body image issues when her body and "pathfinder" are lumped together. Jaal, in the other hand, is already smitten (and, really, so is Ryder).





	Comfort Level

**Author's Note:**

> First ever fanfic and because I'm plus size my head cannon for my Ryder is that she is also. I didn't write all the parts I am thinking about for this idea, but it's a start of possibly more.

Jaal was keeping a list, a running tally, of things he knew about Ryder. He knew that her favorite color was a deep, vibrant violet. For all her practicality and pragmatism, she loved beautiful things and had amassed a small trove of small objects that others would have overlooked or discarded, all of which was kept in a small box surreptitiously hidden under the couch in her quarters. She and Suvi shared a love of Earth teas, and they were working to find a suitable Andromeda counterpart for when their stash ran out. Her hair was, according to her, a nuisance, he knew. There were many things that he knew were true about her, absolutely.  
Her hands were small, but capable, and her eyes sparkled with mischief and love. He knew her face could go so wooden he thought it would make a good table, but it could be equally expressive when she felt comfortable. Liam had a growing number of snapshots of her facial expressions that made him laugh. She was sarcastic and snarky, but leapt to help those who were in need or even simply would ask for aid. But he didn’t understand one thing.

Sara looked unhappily at her reflection. It wasn’t so much that what she saw bothered her, though in some ways it did. It was more the nagging, persistent reminder that she was an interloper that kept her eyebrows tweaked in an expression of perpetual disbelief. Between Cora and Scott, she never expected to be the Pathfinder. She was the fat, cute daughter, cut out for nothing more strenuous than research. Scott and their father had to do gymnastics through the paperwork to force the initiative to allow her onboard. She was a “weight discrepancy” and might need a “specially made cryopod” they’d said. Now she was on a beaut of a ship, sleek and lithe, with two asari babes, a woman who might as well have been a third asari babe, an adorable and perfectly curvy science officer, a gorgeous and totally badass turian, and a bunch of men, only one of whom got her hot under the collar, who would only ever see her as the pudgy little sister of the guy who should have been pathfinder. 

After missions everyone would usually peel off their armor right there next to the Nomad. Steaming piles of armor were reorganized, patched up, and aired out as the crew readied for their next mission. Except for Ryder. Jaal noticed she would laugh and joke with them as they were all divesting themselves of their armor, but she stayed in hers, making her way to her own quarters to change into her ship wear. He has also noticed that she showers alone. Always alone. The others, they grab showers when they can, disregarding who else might come in. Clean is clean, as Liam said, and there is little enough time to spare. But she waits for everyone else to finish before she showers.   
Except once, when Jaal was tinkering with something in the techlab and wanted to wash his hands. The bathroom door wouldn’t open from the hall or the crew quarters. Exasperated, Jaal stepped into the kitchen, only to come face-to-face with Vetra, Liam, and Drack. Turning on the faucet and washing his hands, Jaal mentioned the door malfunction, and noted the strange looks his teammates game him.  
“You don’t know?” asked Liam, before continuing, “Sara is showering. She tries to do it when none of us are around, but we also like to… well, we plan it out, sometimes. To give her space.”  
Jaal didn’t understand that, and it was Vetra he went to to ask for clarification.  
“Oh, she’s self-conscious.” was the short answer. With a little more prodding, the full truth came out, at least what Vetra knew of it: Alec and Scott Ryder were strong, manly men. Ellen Ryder had been equally strong, until her illness which had transformed strength to bird like fragility. All the women of the Tempest, except Sara, were… physically capable and technically good looking (Vetra stated this last part with exasperation, as Peebee said that all the women were good looking and physically capable, including Sara, over the comm.) Ultimately, Vetra told him, Sara didn’t feel that she, physically or intellectually, was meant to be the Pathfinder. It was hard enough coming into the profession without any training, a distant and deceased father, and an unconscious brother, but to add to her burden, Ryder was convinced she was wrong for the part, despite the excellent job she was doing.  
Jaal mulled over this for several days. Like their emotions, Angara were not overly concerned with looks. Attraction was more than physical, and most angara felt that physical beauty was non-existent without the inner beauty as well. Jaal made a quick addendum to his list of things he knew about Ryder: Beautiful. He’d been thinking it for a while now, her beauty was fierce and humorous and gentle. She was smart. He added that, too. Jaal sat down and began to write an email to his True Mother.

Sara was alone on the ship, more or less. Kallo and Suvi were up on the bridge, but everyone else was out in Aya. It was the perfect opportunity for her to change out of her skintight biosuit and into some normal clothes. She had put on a pair of undies and a thin, soft tee shirt and was putting her biosuit in the shower to rinse off when she froze at the hiss of the bathroom door.

Jaal stood transfixed. She wasn’t naked, but she was much closer to it than he had ever seen. Her body was full and soft. Her legs looked long in comparison to the rest of her, but every inch was a soft, curving glory. Her generous thighs pressed together as she turned, hiding her round derriere and presenting the soft hills and valleys of her stomach and breasts. Jaal felt as though every woman should look like Sara did right then. Glowing, soft, radiant and … angry? No, she looked furious.

Sara was mortified. And ashamed. She knew it would only be a matter of time until the crew saw her body, but did the first one have to be him. She wasn’t ashamed of her body, exactly, just that it was attached to the title of Pathfinder, and that seemed… wrong. Her body was better suited to research assistant, or a librarian, or a teacher, not a Pathfinder. She wasn’t lethal and compact, like Cora. She wasn’t curvy and cute like Peebee and Lexi. She wasn’t a tall amazon like Vetra. She wasn’t rubenesque, zaftig, or voluptuous. She was fat and little and… trying her best. So, instead of screaming or bursting into tears, like she wanted to, she walked past Jaal (it just HAD to be Jaal, the most gorgeous male specimen she had ever seen), as if it were no big deal. Except it was. Her cheeks were hot with embarrassment, and when she brushed past him, she felt that she might ignite like a match. She was about to walk into her quarters when his hand wrapped itself around her wrist, not hard or confining, but halting her all the same.

Jaal didn’t think, his hand was at his side and then it was wrapped around her wrist. Her thin, delicate wrist. Another thing to add to the list of things he knew about her: her wrists were delicate and his hand could more than encompass one of her wrists. He turned her, slowly, taking time to look at her as much as he could. He never wanted to forget what she looked like at this moment, flushed and beautiful and enraged. She made eye contact with him for a brief moment before her eyes dropped and she fled, breaking his light grasp around her wrist. Jaal washed his hands and face, then went to the techlab and wrote another email to his mother.

Sara didn’t know what to think as she pulled on a pair of pants. Jaal had just… held her wrist and looked at her. If she didn’t know better, she’d have said there had been appreciation in his eyes, like seeing her like that had been...a good thing. She wasn’t sure if she should seek him out and talk about it or *bing* her email chimed at her.

“Sara, I apologize for barging in on you. I have spoken to Vetra about your… reluctance for your body to be seen. I will not tell anyone about this if you wish me to keep silent about it, however, I wanted to ask you to do something. We are becoming friends, I think, and I would like it if you did not hide from me again. You offer so much to the universe and I would like to offer this to you. I think you are lovely, on the inside and the outside. I hope you believe me.  
Yours, Jaal”

Later that night, as Sara sat with Liam, Vetra and Drack, enjoying dinner, Jaal entered. His eyes searched out Sara’s and he glowed a soft pink blush as she smiled a small, sweet smile, meant only for him.


End file.
